- March 28, 2024
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There are times in life when a split-second decision can change everything, from the score of a championship game to an academic future in the final minute of a standardized test.
But some must make split-second decisions with lives on the line, possibly risking theirs, such as firefighters and police officers.
“To me, heroes are police, firefighters, EMTs, soldiers — people who put their lives on the line every day,” said Oakley Transport driver David Fredericksen, of Windermere. “I really don’t like being called a hero.”
Gary Medalis, director of marketing for Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems, disagreed.
“Each of this year’s Highway Hero Award finalists is a true hero in his own right and a credit to the trucking industry,” Medalis said. “We look forward to honoring these individuals for their courage during the Mid-America Trucking Show.”
Fredericksen is one three finalists Goodyear will honor March 26 in Louisville, Kentucky.
At about 5:23 p.m. Aug. 11, 2014, Fredericksen, then 53, was driving along Interstate 10 near Biloxi, Mississippi, part of his weekly drive from Florida to California to transport orange juice with his work partner, Walter Lettermen. A 51-year-old woman did not yield to a fuel truck while entering the highway in a Lincoln Town Car, hitting the truck near its fuel tank and spinning out of control while fuel spilled across the road. Flames began to engulf the car.
“I actually didn’t think they were alive, and when I got out of the truck … I pulled the (fire extinguisher) pin and was praying that I wouldn’t have to deal with gory stuff,” Fredericksen said. “I started putting the fire out and could see inside the trunk. I went around and saw a head in the back window, and that’s when I went up and saw the lady in the front seat. I grabbed the door, pulled it open, and the little girl was standing up in her car seat. Smoke was really black above her head.”
Fredericksen assumed the driver could get out alone, because she was kicking the door, but he was not aware that her leg was broken, he said.
“I reached in and grabbed the little girl,” he said. “I came out, and a couple other people were helping the lady. I … handed her to Walter and went back to try to put out some more fire as they tried to get the lady out of the car, and when my fire extinguisher ran out, I walked away.”
SELF-PRESERVATION SPURS NOMINATION
“People are afraid of big trucks, but a lot of times, we’re the first to help you,” Fredericksen said. “We’ve got a fire extinguisher on our trucks; if I didn’t have a fire extinguisher, I couldn’t have gotten to them.”
Fredericksen has heard many similar stories of other truckers’ valor. Despite them all, stigmas against them remain, which is why the Town Car driver’s lack of license and registration and irresponsible driving particularly upset him. Without the right insurance — or even with it — the trucker she hit could have had to pay a fortune, he said.
“The problem is, no matter what, it’s our fault,” he said. “Let’s say a car pulls out in front, and I hit it. The speed limit’s 55, and I’m doing 60. They can go back and say, ‘If you would’ve been doing the speed limit, you wouldn’t have hit them.’ It doesn’t matter — they pulled out in front of me. All I was doing was my job. That’s why we got e-logs. I like that; it records everything. But still, if you’re going one mile over, they’ll say the timing would be different and it’s my fault.”
Stigma pervaded this situation on a personal level, too: Police arriving minutes after the wreck checked Fredericksen’s truck for damage, thinking he had caused it. This makes camera logs crucial, and Fredericksen’s video not only proved the Town Car driver’s culpability but allowed his son, Logan, to upload it, leading to his nomination.
Fredericksen said viewers have criticized Lettermen for asking what they could do about the wreck, thinking he wanted to stop Fredericksen.
“I don’t look at it that way,” Fredericksen said. “They were posting on there that he should be fired. He didn’t have to do anything — nobody has to do anything. We believe God put us there for a reason. Thirty seconds earlier, it would’ve been me they would’ve run into. Thirty seconds later, I would’ve been so far back in traffic, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything. We’re glad that He used us to help those people.”
A Christian magazine about miracles featured Fredericksen and changes in his life that recently reinvigorated his faith.
“Ask yourself what you would’ve done,” he said. “I hope I would help somebody. Those people are alive today because I did. I don’t think I did anything extraordinary, just put in an extraordinary situation and did the right thing. I got kids, and for somebody to do that for my kids, of course I’d be appreciative if they did it. We’re not Samaritans, but we think we’re good Americans.”
HONORS
Officials at Oakley, a company based in Lake Wales, where Fredericksen and Lettermen report, nominated Fredericksen for this award.
“I’m doing this for (Oakley) and for Goodyear,” Fredericksen said. “It’s not about me. They’ve honored me and my co-driver because of this, put all this chrome on our truck — we got the first one of them. Oakley stepped up and paid $1,500 for plane tickets for my kids to go to that — that’s pretty nice.”
Oakley will honor Fredericksen and Lettermen as its Team of the Year, giving them a raise of 10 cents per mile — about $12,000 more per year — Team of the Year apparel, truck furnishings such as a television and a refrigerator and a steak dinner with door-to-door limo service, Fredericksen said.
The mayor of Lake Wales and its police department gave the pair a commendation. Fredericksen was the second runner-up in Progressive’s Real Life Trucking Hero Contest for his deed, as well, and believes he will finish similarly at the Mid-American Trucking Show.
Fredericksen believes Clinton Blackburn, a driver from Morehead, Kentucky, will win the award for saving a jailer from strangulation by a prisoner in transport.
Last year’s winner saved a fellow trucker from being crushed by his truck after he lost control and the truck was hanging off a bridge, Fredericksen said. He caught fire and fell to the underpass, where a fellow trucker used water to put out fire on him and dragged him to safety before the truck fell.
“I talk to other drivers, and the things they have to do — you got three dead kids and you got another to try and keep alive,” Fredericksen said. “That would be a tough one. I’m honored to be mentioned with them.”
But the greatest honor for Fredericksen is at home.
“My three kids at home think I’m a hero,” he said. “They posted a picture of Mr. Incredible, saying, ‘We think you might be him.’ My kids are my life, and when I came home, they were calling me a hero, and that means the most to me.”
Click HERE for a video taken from Fredericksen's truck.
Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].